Connecticut Raises Minimum Wage to Highest in United States

The governor of Connecticut, Dannel Malloy, signed into law a measure that will bring the highest minimum wage of any state in America, in line with a push by Democrats all across the nation to raise the entry level wage to a higher level. The bill, which was agreed to by Connecticut state legislators one day earlier, will cause the state’s lowest hourly rate to go up to $10.10. That is a number that is in agreement with what President Obama has asked the United States Congress to deliberate on commanding as the nation minimum wage rate.

Malloy signed the legislature on Thursday evening in the exact New Britain restaurant where he had been previously this month with the president and other New England governors, Governor Chafee of Rhode Island, Governor Patrick of Massachusetts and Governor Shumlin of Vermont. They are all Democrats who want to have the minimum wage lifted in their respective states.

New Britain is in the middle of Connecticut and has been hit hard by the financial downturn of the country. The state’s household median income is only around $35,000 when equated to the statewide average of nearly $67,000.

Malloy explained that signing the bill was a step in moving in the right direction. This will help lift people out of poverty in Connecticut. By increasing the minimum wage, it is not only just good for the workers, it is also good for various businesses.

Brendan Sharkey, Connecticut’s Speaker of the House, and a Democrat as well, stated that raising the minimum wage would help the people who needed it the very most, was very good for Connecticut’s economy and was just the right thing to be done

However Patrick O’Neil, the State House Republican spokesperson, declares that his party was completely against the law due to it did not think the bill would help create any new jobs inside a state that had an unemployment rate over seven percent. That is higher than the nation’s average rate. O’Neil was grim when he spoke, This action was just politics in an election year and it will not lift anybody out of poverty.

In the city of Bridgeport, there is over a 50 percent unemployment rate amid teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19. If they are unable to get a job at $8.70 an hour, why does anyone believe they will be able to get one when the pay rate is even higher than that? All this is going to do is cause employers to hire even less individuals.

President Obama’s call out for a greater national minimum wage has been unsuccessful. It has never yet won the backing of the Republican controlled United States House of Representatives. The Congressional Office stated in a research study sent out in February that lifting up the minimum wage would end up reducing the overall total range of employment by about 500,000 workers.

Connecticut’s present minimum wage is $8.70 per hour, and the new bill will come in phases over three years. The present highest minimum wage in the U.S. is Washington’s $9.32, which is definitely over the $7.25 federal law minimum at this time.

Malloy is up for a re-election in 2014 and Connecticut Republicans have said the new law was nothing but a political move. The governor signed the law to bring the highest minimum wage of any state in America, in line with a push by Democrats all across the nation to raise the entry level wage to a higher level.